[Normy]

I worked as a janitor in the coal-fired powerplants of Detroit Edison in the summers of 1984 and 1985. The following summer, a "tube leak" occured, and two employees of my company were hospitalized. The "tube leak" was basically a steam explosion from a pressurized line; they spent 6 weeks in the hospital.

Detroit Edison does good maintenance in my opinion, but I still felt safer working for the landscaping company that cut the grass outside the plant, and that's who I worked for in 1986.

Electrical generating stations have tube leaks and explosions all the time. You just don't hear about it is all, since they are about as newsworthy as a garbage truck breaking down. Still, I'd rather brave traffic driving to the airport than stand next to a two-foot wide tube with 1100 degree steam at 1700 psi moving through at nearly supersonic velocities.